National Islands Plan Annual Report 2022

Digital

Strategic Objective 6 – To improve digital connectivity

We committed to deliver a step change in the quality of digital connectivity across the islands.

Implementation Route Map action

• The Scottish Government is investing £384 million in the R100 North lot contract which covers the majority of Scotland's inhabited islands.
• The Scottish Government will provide BT with an updated intervention area (the list of addresses eligible for public sector subsidy) upon which we have recently consulted.
• Sixteen new subsea cables will be delivered through the North lot contract providing gigabit-capable, future-proofed, resilient connectivity for those islands.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

Over the summer of 2022, as part of the R100 North Contract, BT completed the building and testing of 16 new subsea cables connecting 15 Scottish Islands. These new cables will provide gigabit capable, future-proofed, resilient connectivity to island communities for decades to come. Some planned post-laying activity is continuing with work to establish terrestrial connections on the newly connected islands now underway.

In August 2022 we announced a £36 million expansion to the R100 contracts which will result in an additional 2,637 rural premises being connected to gigabit capable, Fibre To The Premises (FTTP). This will ensure delivery of the Gigabit Islands commitment as set out in the 2021/22 Programme for Government and will complete broadband build on several islands including Westray, Rousay, Hoy and Eday. This contract expansion will be funded jointly, with the Scottish Government providing £20 million and the UK Government's Project Gigabit funding £16 million.

Over 12,000 premises located in islands communities are now expected to receive an FTTP connection through the R100 North Contract. As of the 1 December 2022 (the latest figures available) 3,650 premises had had an FTTP connection delivered through the R100 North Contract.

As of the 1 December 2022 (the latest figures available) 105 island premises have had a superfast connection delivered through the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and a further 120 vouchers have been issued for installations that have been requested but are not yet complete. Vouchers can be used for a variety of technologies including satellite, 4G, 5G, Fixed Wireless and FTTP.

Delivery of the £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill Programme continued at pace over 2022 with 30 masts activated for 4G by the end of December 2022, including 9 on island locations (Orkney mainland, Shetland mainland, Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Mull and Skye). Delivery of the programme will conclude in 2023, including on further island locations.

We committed to mandate the delivery of gigabit-capable connectivity to selected island locations, through the R100 programme, with many other island communities to benefit once contracts are finalised.

Implementation Route Map action

The R100 contracts, alongside our SBVS, will ensure that anyone who requires a superfast broadband connection can have one.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

As the R100 North Contract delivery progresses many more island premises, including in the mandated areas, will be connected to new full fibre networks, particularly now that work to lay sixteen new subsea fibre cables has been completed.

The R100 superfast broadband commitment was delivered by ensuring that everyone could access a superfast broadband connection, if they chose to, by the end of 2021 either through the R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme or commercial coverage.

We committed to call on the UK Government to prioritise early investment in Scotland's islands as part of their plans for full fibre roll-out by 2025.

Implementation Route Map action

We will continue to engage with UK Ministers to ensure Scotland receives its fair share of the project gigabit funding and early investment in Scotland's islands.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

We continue to work closely with the UK Government to ensure Project Gigabit can be successfully deployed alongside R100 build and to make sure that Scotland receives its fair share of Project Gigabit funding.

We committed to call on Ofcom to address the issues faced by island communities when designing telecoms regulation and policy. We also committed to convene a meeting with Ofcom and island representatives to explore how regulatory levers (such as spectrum auctions) could improve both mobile and broadband coverage on the islands and ensure that the needs of islands are represented to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in UK national policy development.

Implementation Route Map action

• We will continue to work with island partners including local authorities, communities and business to gather evidence of, and demonstrate needs of islands in regard to mobile and broadband coverage.
• We will convene a meeting with Ofcom to present a report on island engagement on needs in order to inform telecoms regulation and policy design.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with representatives of OFCOM to ensure that Scotland's interests are represented, and any issues raised. This also includes co-ordinating regular liaison between OFCOM and DCMS representatives with our recognised local authority single points of contact for digital connectivity, including representatives of island communities.

Through the Scotland 5G Centre, we committed to building on the 5G RuralFirst trials currently taking place on Orkney, and working with partners including Ofcom, we committed to develop rural 5G use cases to address the rural digital divide using 5G technology.

Implementation Route Map action

Working with the Scotland 5G Centre, we will continue to monitor the progress of the pan-island testbed 5G network trials (including fixed wireless access and spectrum sharing) and key 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) use case applications (including energy and food & drink), and explore how the trial's outputs and lessons learned can be mainstreamed and help inform policy in addressing the rural digital divide.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

Through the Scotland 5G Centre's Wave 1 Rural project, in partnership with the 5G New Thinking project, equipment was procured to build private 5G networks on Westray and Papa Westray, and on Flotta and Hoy working with local on-island partners Cloudnet IT Services and Orkney Islands Council. A total of seven 5G rural private network base-stations were installed and providing connectivity to sixty-eight trialists across the three island communities. A 5G network core was set up and a network monitoring system developed for the network operations. Physical deployment activity concluded in March 2022, however, since then, the project team has maintained and operated the network, and carried out additional engineering for further innovative projects to follow in 2023.

We committed to work with local resilience partnerships and telecoms providers to encourage them to focus on resilience of data links to and from the islands.

Implementation Route Map action

Scottish Government Islands Team will continue engaging with relevant resilience partnerships and, through this engagement, will identify any challenges to resilience of data links to and from the islands.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

Work continues on improving data links to and from our islands.

The Scottish Government is investing £600 million in the R100 contracts which are delivering gigabit capable, fibre to the premises connections across rural Scotland. The three R100 contracts are currently expected to connect at least 114,000 premises in some of the hardest to reach areas in Scotland – as of 31 December 2022, almost 19,500 properties now have access to improved broadband thanks to the R100 programme.

During 2022, 16 subsea cables – measuring 224 kilometres in length and weighing over 1,000 tonnes in total – were deployed to 15 Scottish islands as part of R100; providing future-proofed, resilient connections to those island communities for decades to come. Upon completion of build, over 12,000 island properties will have access to gigabit capable, fibre to the premises connections thanks to R100 subsea deployment.

Furthermore, through the Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme, we are investing in future-proofed infrastructure to improve rural and island 4G mobile coverage. Our investment of £28.75 million is delivering future-proofed, 4G mobile infrastructure to fifty-five mobile "notspots" – providing connectivity in rural and island areas. Thirty-two masts are now live and delivering 4G services – and work continued in 2022 on our pipeline of further build activity and site activations through to the project's completion in spring 2023. S4GI is improving everyday life for the communities our masts serve, directly supporting wider plans for local tourism and enabling residents to access digital services and stay in touch with families and friends.

We committed to develop a digital skills programme designed by island communities to meet their needs.

Implementation Route Map action

• We will engage with island communities to understand digital skills needs.
• Learn from existing programmes being delivered in the island communities and support their implementation across the islands.
• Engage with education providers, agencies and local authorities to understand more of what skills programmes are being implemented across the islands.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

In 2022, Scottish Government supported the delivery of a project aimed at developing a system that engages the next generation of digital talent and supports the growth of Scotland's rural digital economy. The Silicon Croft approach focuses on educator engagement and collaboration, whilst sharing a wide range of resources to raise awareness and develop digital skills. The aim is to integrate digital skills across the curriculum and support the development of rural digital economies. The project is currently delivered in Shetland. However, it is intended that this model could be tested in other locations. Initial consideration is being given to Skye, Orkney and the Western Isles.

We committed to extend the availability of coding clubs and community-based digital inclusion programmes across the islands.

Implementation Route Map action

Learn from existing programmes being delivered in the island communities and support their implementation across the islands.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

Through the approach of "educating the educators" of the aforementioned Silicon Croft project, it is hoped that community-based digital inclusion can be improved through building the local skills base that will empower and facilitate communities to develop their own approaches to digital inclusion.